http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/A.J.%20Higginson/muslims-and-homosexuality_b_3870179.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
Turkish, Muslim and Lesbian
Posted: 06/09/2013 00:00
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Firstly, you have to be invited. Then you have to promise utter discretion. On the assigned evening, you enter, and if your name is on the list you're in.
You've suddenly arrived in another world. There are scores of women dancing, talking, eating, drinking. They come from different backgrounds- but they're united, as Turkish and as lesbians.
You've finally come home.
This is a monthly party for LGBT women put on in Antalya, a coastal resort city in southern Turkey. It is hosted by *Amara, a decade-old organisation for Turkish queer women. Knocking on Europe's door yet on the threshold of Asia, Turkey is truly a land of contrasts, straddling religion as well as continents.
'I thought I was the only Muslim lesbian in the world. When I was younger and watched the likes of Martina Navratilova on TV, it was, for me, a foreign thing, not something that happened in our society,' says 26-year-old Cemile, describing the parties one afternoon as we sit in the Old Harbour drinking ayran.
Cemile is from Konya, a city north of Antalya and has been a member of *Amara for the past five years. 'When I heard about *Amara I was shocked,' she says. ' I thought are there actually other Turkish gay women out there ?'
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